Vietnam War

Domino Theory

• Domino Theory stated that if one nation had a communist regime installed, other countries would follow suit.
• This was flawed reasoning for a few major reasons, first, it assumed that communist ideals had taken root in more countries than it had, and secondly, it assumed that there was enough support that would be required in order to oust a government.

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

• Essentially, the resolution gave the US government the ability to intervene in any communist uprising that occurred in southeast Asia.
• This would give the military the go-ahead to directly intervene in the war between North and South Vietnam.
• It gave the President more power to be able to dictate the military was to respond to threats.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

• The Trail was used by North Vietnam to bring in troops and supplies into the South. This was how the majority of troops and supplies circumvented much of the military.
• I am not sure, but because the trail went through both Laos and Cambodia, I would infer that the governments were either ignorant of the trail, or were silently approving of it's existence, and because of it being in another countries territory, the United States Military could not shut it down.

Hawks and Doves

• Basically, the "Hawks" were supporters of the war, they argued that the North started the war, the United States had a right to continue the war against them.
• The "Doves" were antiwar, they believed that the war was not beneficial. They held multitude of antiwar protests.

Tet Offensive

• The Tet Offensive was a major point in the war, before the offensive, the Viet Cong had acted against the US Military almost exclusively through guerrilla warfare.
• This was a big deal, the shift in the war from a guerrilla focus to open conflict had shifted the nature of combat in South Vietnam.
• This decreased the moral of American soldiers severely.

Vietnamization

• "Vietnamization" was a simple plan, it involved replacing American soldiers with South Vietnamese soldiers.
• This was quite a devious plan, it was almost assuredly intended to decrease the number of American casualities in Vietnam, and this, hopefully, would increase support for the war.

Kent State Shootings

• Student Activists were protesting Nixon's campaign in Cambodia.
• On May 4 1970, 2,000 students had gathered on the Campus to protest the war.
• After the National Guard had appeared to attempt to contain the protest. After clearing out many of the students, some of those who had remained started to throw rocks at the soldiers.
• In response, a Sergeant turned, and fired into the crowd, the other soldiers turned and followed suit. After it was all over, four people were killed, and nine were injured.

Legacy of the War

• The war was completely unsuccessful. By the end over $150 billion dollars was spent on the war, according to an inflation calculator (however accurate that might be,) that would be over $1 trillion dollars spent today.
• The was left hundreds of thousands of American and South Vietnamese soldiers dead, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed on both sides.

Cambodian Campaign

• Cambodia pushed a very neutral policy during the war, which effectively allowed for the Viet Cong to keep troops and supplies on that side of the border.
• Nixon pushed for a campaign to deal with the build up of material and soldiers on the Cambodian side of the border.
• It also would have provided for a safer border between Cambodia and South Vietnam.
• Overall, the US Forces were unable to kill/capture a terribly large ammount of North Vietnamese forces, but they were able to capture a lot of materials used by the Viet Cong.

Student Activism

• The war in Vietnam was not popular in the US, especially among students. This prompted for much of the antiwar protests to originate from college students.
• This was starkly different from the older generations approach, which was largely against radical change.